Most online transactions involving the transmission of sensitive or confidential information require a high degree of certainty as to the identity of the parties involved. It is well known that members of the public access the Internet for the purpose of conducting financial transactions, online banking and purchasing of merchandise. These commercial systems suffer from a common disadvantage in that they rely on the transmission of sensitive information over unsecured network routes and lines during each transaction. While these systems often rely on encryption, password protection and other security options that are considered relatively safe, there remains significant risk of fraud, identify theft and misappropriation of information.
The Internet can be described generally as a wide area network of computers or devices that can be remotely located worldwide. The computers or devices are linked by a variety of communication links including telephone lines, cable television lines, satellite link-ups, wireless networks and other telecommunication connections. Internet service providers (ISPs) provide their subscribers or end users with a link to the main backbone of the Internet. The computers and devices can connect to the Internet and are assigned IP addresses to uniquely identify them and set them apart. These computer or device IP addresses may be static or change (dynamic) during each Internet session. Each (user) session may involve some level of activity by a computer with an IP address on which a user spends time at a Web site. The number of user sessions on a site is often used in measuring the amount of traffic at a Web site. A site administrator usually determines the time frame of a user session between logging in and out, e.g., 10 minutes, before an online session is terminated or timed-out due to user inactivity. However if the visitor performs some level of activity within selected time period, this can still be considered one or the same user session and any transactions conducted within that time frame would be considered part of a single session. When a user returns to the site to begin a log-in procedure, or after an allotted time period has expired, this would be considered another user session.
According to many marketing surveys, there is a relatively high percentage of companies and users who refrain from purchasing merchandise and conducting e-commerce over the Internet. There remains a persistent fear that credit card, account and other personal information will be intercepted online by a third party computer hacker and used illegally despite ongoing security efforts. This comes at great expense for users who become victims of identity theft and fraud. At the same time, online vendors and financial institutions are subject to additional risks in the course of transactions subject to illegal activity such as session tampering and session hijacking. Considering the numerous types of incidents that threaten security of enterprise systems and networks, attackers remain capable of modifying and manipulating or taking over online sessions to commit fraud and theft.
There is a need for online solutions that detect session manipulation or tampering so that fraud and the misappropriation or misuse of confidential information can be avoided.